Keep in mind that most projects that these sites highlight will fall in the typical range of particpation for a citizen scientists under the umbrella of Public Participation in Scientific Research which includes only data collection and/or data preparation.

Second, here are questions I've put together for someone who is thinking about starting their own project:

•WHAT- is the content and is it conducive to crowdsourcing?

•WHY- is your question and hypothesis appropriate both scientifically and educationally?

•WHERE- will the study take place and how?

•HOW- will you evaluate and measure success?

Lessons Learned... as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Our community-based research study, the Genetics of Taste, has been an adventure to design, execute and evaluate, and I'm happy to share our lessons learned. So if you have more questions, or want to bounce some ideas around, please feel free to contact me at ngarneau@dmns.org and I'd be happy to help.